Middle English

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Middle English
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Cnuts Danish-English Empire 1014-1035
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Harold Godwin Earl of Wessex
William of Normandy
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The Norman Invasion 1066
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Battle of Hastings

• Harold Godwin dies
• Normans pillage southern England
• Christmas 1066 Enthronement of William of
  Normandy

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After the Norman Conquest 1066-1204
William replaces the old English nobility by a
new Norman nobility. Soon, every important
position in government, church and at
universities was held by a Norman.
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Norman property in England and France
1204 Loss of Normandy
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English in the 13th century
After loss of Normandy French remains the
dominant language of the upper classes. At the
end of the 13th century, English is used more
commonly by the upper classes.
King Henry III 1216-1272
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The growing importance of English

1. Upper classes need to communicate with their
   people.
2. After the loss of the Normandy, French was no
   longer needed.
3. Speaking French was fashionable in the 13th
   century, but Norman French had much lower
   prestige than the French spoken in Paris.

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Early French loan words (1066-1250)
baron noble servant messenger feast
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French loan words nouns
action adventure number age air pair bucket
calendar person carpenter city powder coast
comfort river cost country sign courage cowa
rd opinion
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French loan words nouns
ease envy poverty error face reason noise
fault season flower force sound Honor hour
use manner task honor damage debt peopl
e
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French loan words verbs
advise aim allow approach arrange arrive betr
ay change chase serve comfort complain conce
al consider continue count deceive
destroy declare defeat delay desire enjoy en
ter
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French loan words verbs
force form increase inform join suppose mar
ry obey observe pay wait please praise pr
efer propose prove push receive refuse relie
ve remember waste satisfy save
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French loan words adjectives
able active actual brief calm certain cle
ar common contrary courageous cruel curious
eager easy faint fierce final firm fore
ign gentle hasty
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French loan words adjectives
honest horrible innocent large natural nice o
riginal perfect poor precious pure real rude
safe scarce second simple single special s
table usual
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Government and administration
government crown state empire realm authority
court parliament assembly traitor treason ex
ile liberty office mayor prince baron duke s
ir madam mistress
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Church and religion
religion sermon confess prayer lesson passion
chant sacrifice chapter abbey cloister virgin
saint miracle mystery faith mercy pity vir
tue preach pray
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Law
justice equity judgment crime judge attorney
bill petition complaint evidence proof bail
ransom verdict sentence award fine punishme
nt prison accuse indict blame arrest seize pl
edge condemn convict acquit fraud perjury pro
perty estate heir entail just innocent
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Army and navy
army navy pace enemy battle combat siege
defense ambush retreat soldier guard spy capt
ain besiege
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Fashion
dress habit fashion robe coat collar veil
mitten adorn embellish blue brown fur jewe
l ivory
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Meals and food
dinner supper boil taste appetite salmon beef
veal pork sausage bacon gravy cream sugar
salad fruits orange roast lemon cherry peac
h spice mustard vinegar
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Furniture, social life
couch chair screen lamp blanket wardrobe rec
reation leisure dance fool music chess stable
retrieve falcon forest park tournament
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Art, learning, medicine
art painting beauty color figure image tone
cathedral ceiling tower porch bay column
vase poet rime story paper pen study lo
gic geometry grammar noun clause copy medicin
e stomach ointment poison
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Loss of Germanic words
French borrowing Lost English word poor earm p
eople leod guilty scyldig army here warrio
r cempa air lyft confess andettan praise
hearian
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Semantic differentiation
French loan English word judgment doom judge
deem cordial hearty power might demand ask
desire wish beef ox pork swine veal c
alf mutton cheep
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Old English verbal prefixes
for- (German ver-) forget, forbear, forbid with-
(German mit-) withdraw, withhold to- (German
zu-) ---
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English derivational morphemes
-hood childhood, likelihood, manhood -ship friend
ship, kinship, hardship -dom freedom, wisdom,
kingdom
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Romans verbal affixes
Verbal prefixes inter, counter, re, trans,
anti, dis, Verbal suffixes able, ible,
ent, al, ous, ive
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The 100 Years War 1337-1453
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Rise of new middle class
Craftsmen
Merchants
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Black Death 1349
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Loan words from Latin
adjacent conspiracy contempt custody distract
frustrate genius gesture history homicide inclu
de incredible individual infancy suppress infin
ite innate intellect
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Loan words from Latin
interrupt legal magnify minor moderate priva
te necessary nervous picture polite popular p
revent project submit prosody reject summary
substitute
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Loan words from Flemish, Dutch, Low German
deck dock freight rover booze gin easel e
tching landscape
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Middle English Grammar
The structure of Middle English is radically
different from the structure of Old English.
Old English is a highly inflectional language.
Middle English has very little morphology.
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Spelling
ltþgt and ltðgt were gradually replaced by ltthgt
ltkgt for k ltkgt for k ltshgt for S ltshgt for S ltchgt for tS ltchgt for tS
Old Engl. Middle E. Old Engl. Middle E. Old Engl. Middle E.
cyssan cneow cene kiss knee keen scamu scearp shame sharp cild ceap cinn child cheap chinn
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Spelling
x ltghgt OE ME þoht thought riht right
u ltougt or ltowgt OE ME hour round hu how t
hu thou hus house brun brown
OE ME hwæt what hwil while
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Consonants
Bilabial Labio-dental Inter-dental Alveolar Alveola-palatal Velar
Stop p b t d k g
Affricate tS dZ
Fricative f v T D s z S Z h
Nasal m n
Lateral l
Retroflex r
Glide w y
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Phonological changes
vine (Fr.) fine (Fr.) view (Fr.) few
(Engl.) vile (Fr.) file (Engl.)
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Phonological changes
huzian gt huzia gt huz to house
V hus hus a house N
bath bathe breath breathe
life live knife knives
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Vowels
Long vowels i
u e o
a
Short vowels i u
e _at_ o
a
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Diphthongs
iu trewe true Eu fewe few au clawe
claw Ou bowe bow ai dai day Ui p
oint point Oi chois choice
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Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)
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Morphosyntactic changes

• Simplification of inflection/morphology
• Emergence of new grammatical devices
• a. analytical verb forms
• b. rigid word order

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Noun declension
Old English Old English
SG SG
NOM stan stan-as
GEN stan-es stan-a
DAT stan-e stan-um
ACC stan stan-as
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Noun declension
Old English Old English Middle English Middle English
SG SG SG PL
NOM stan stan-as stan stan-es
GEN stan-es stan-a stan-es stan-es
DAT stan-e stan-um stan stan-es
ACC stan stan-as stan stan-es
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Function of morphological case markers

1. Peters car
2. Der Mann gibt dem Jungen den Stift.

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Noun declension
Old English Old English Middle English Middle English
SG SG SG PL
NOM stan stan-as stan stan-es
GEN stan-es stan-a stan-es stan-es
DAT stan-e stan-um stan stan-es
ACC stan stan-as stan stan-es
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Noun declension
South Old English Old English Middle English Middle English
SG SG PL SG PL
NOM eag-a eag-an eye eye-n
GEN eag-an stan-ena eye-s eye-n
DAT eag-an stan-um eye eye-n
ACC eag-an stan-an eye eye-n
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Relics of the -en plural in EME
EME PDE eyen eyes shoon shoes hosen hose h
ousen houses peasen peas
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Relics of the -en plural in ME
oxen children brethren
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Gender
NEUT Þæt scip that.N ship MASC se
stan that.M stone FEM seo giefu that.F gift
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Demonstratives
that/the Masc Neut
NOM se þæt
GEN þæs þæs
DAT þæm þæm
ACC þone þæt
INST þy þy
SG PL
proximal this these
distal that those
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Third person pronouns
3SG M 3SG F 3 SG N 3 PL
Subj Obj Poss he him his heo, sche hire, her hir(e), her(e) hit, it hit, it, him his he, hi, thei hem, them here, thair
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First and second person pronouns
1. person 2. person
SG PL SG PL
Subj Obj Poss ich, I me mine, mi we us ure, our þu, thou þe, thee þin(e), i ye, ye you, eu, you yur(e), your
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Adjectives
OE SG
MASC NEUT FEM
NOM ACC GEN DAT INSTR til til-ne til-es til-um til-e til til til-es til-um til-e til-u til-e til-re til-re
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Verbal inflection
OE Present Past
Indicative
1. Sg sing-e sang
2. Sg sing-est sang-e
3. Sg sing-eð sang
Pl. sing-að sung-on

Subjunctive
Sg. sing-e sung-e
Pl. sing-en sung-en
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Verbal inflection in Middle English
Person -s (3rd person) Number lost Tense -ed
/ Ablaut Mood lost
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Grammatical innovations
Morphological cases were replaced by new word
order patterns. Tense and mood affixes were
replaced by new analytical verb forms.
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Word order in main clauses
Old English (1) Þa eode se biscop into þa
oþaere cyrcan then went the bishop into that
other church Then the bishop went into the
other church.
Middle English (2) In the contre of Ethyop they
slen here childeryn byforn here goddys. In
the country of Ethiopia they slay their children
in front of their gods.
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Word order in main clauses
Nowe haue ye herde þe vertues þe
significacouns. Now have you heard the virtues
and the meanings.
(1) Never has Peter talked to him. (2) Under no
circumstance would she talk to him. (3) Only on
the weekend does he have time to cook dinner.
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Word order in subordinate clauses
(1) þat ðu þis weork naht ne forlate. that
you this work not (not) neglect. (2) If a man
will þe harme If a man wants (to) you harm .
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Word order in questions
(1) Woot ye not where ther stant a litel toun
know you not where there stand a little
town Dont you know where the little town
is? (2) Why make ye youreself for to be lyk a
fool? Why make you yourself for to be like a
fool Why do you make a fool of yourself?
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Analytical verb forms
Future will catch Perfect have
caught Passive is caught Progressive is
catching Modal verbs can / may / must catch
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Future
and swiche wolle have the kyngdom of helle, and
not of hevene. and such will have the kingdom
of hell, and not of heaven
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Perfect
(1) Ic hæbbe þo-ne fisc gefange-ne I have
the-ACC fish caught-ACC I have the fish caught
(I have the fish in a state of being caught)
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Perfect
(1) thin geleafa hæfth the gehæled. your faith
has you healed Your faith has healed
you. (2) Ac hie hæfdon þa hiora mete
genotudne. but they had then their food
used-up But they had then used up their food.
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Perfect
(1) a. Peter has a fish caught. (Peter has a
caught fish) b. Peter has caught a fish.
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Perfect
(1) þou hauest don oure kunne wo You have done
our family woe. (2) I am com to myne ende. I
have come to my end.
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Passive
Vorgangspassive wesen Zustandspassive weorthan
men that wol nat be governed by hir
wyves. men that will not be governed by their
wives.
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Progressive
Participle (1) For now is gode Gawayn goande
ryght here. For now is good Gawain going right
here. Gerund (2) I am yn beldyng of a pore
hous. I am in (the process of) building a
poor house.
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(No Transcript)
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(1) Below you see a summary of Grimms law. What
does Grimms law describe? p t k gt f D
x/h b d g gt p t k bh dh gh gt b d
g (2) Explain how Latin influenced English in the
OE period. (3) Characterize the basic word order
of OE. (4) Characterize the vocabulary that
English borrowed from Old Norse. (5) What is the
historical source of the present perfect in
Modern English? (6) Characterize the major
developmental changes in the English grammar
during the ME period.
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Perfect
(1) Ic hæbbe þo-ne fisc gefange-ne I have
the-ACC fish caught-ACC I have the fish caught
(I have the fish in a state of being caught)
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Grammatical innovations
Loss of inflectional morphology. Development of
rigid word order. Development of analytical verb
forms.
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Word order in main clauses
Old English (1) Þa eode se biscop into þa
oþaere cyrcan then went the bishop into that
other church Then the bishop went into the
other church.
Middle English (2) In the contre of Ethyop they
slen here childeryn byforn here goddys. In
the country of Ethiopia they slay their children
in front of their gods.
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Word order in main clauses
Nowe haue ye herde þe vertues þe
significacouns. Now have you heard the virtues
and the meanings.
(1) Never has Peter talked to him. (2) Under no
circumstance would she talk to him. (3) Only on
the weekend does he have time to cook dinner.
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Future
and swiche wolle have the kyngdom of helle, and
not of hevene. and such will have the kingdom
of hell, and not of heaven
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Passive
Vorgangspassive wesen Zustandspassive weorthan
men that wol nat be governed by hir
wyves. men that will not be governed by their
wives.
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Modal verbs
(1) þat y mowe riche be that I may rich be
(1) Do I may go home (2) I do not may go
home. (3) I may to go. (4) I am maying go home.
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(No Transcript)
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Was Middle English a creole? (Baugh Cable
p.125)
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Middle English was not a creole
The development of Middle English was very
different from the development of a creole
language.
Although Middle English has very little
morphology, it has complex syntactic structures
and an intricate phonological system.
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The discussion about the creolization of English
demonstrates how radically English changed in
Middle English 1. different vocabulary 2.
different grammar
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What led to the grammatical changes?
The Norman Conquest had a significant effect on
the English vocabulary, but did it also affect
the English grammar?
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Why did English grammar change so much?

• The stress pattern
• The contact with Old Norse
• The loss of an English standard

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Middle English Dialects
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And one of theym named Sheffelde, a mercer, cam
in-to an hows and axed for mete and specyaly he
axyd after eggys. And the goode wyf answered,
that she coude speke no frenshe. And the
marchaunt was angry, for he also coude speke no
frenshe, but wolde have hadde egges, and she
understode hym not. And thenne at laste a nother
sayd that he wolde have eyren.
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Middle English Dialects
South eyr-en North egg-es South eth love
th North es loves South inde lovinde Nor
th ande lovande South hi, here,
hem North they
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Languages and Dialects
What distinguishes a language from a dialect?
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Scandinavian languages
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Chinese Dialects
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Dialects vs. Languages
The distinction between the terms language and
dialect is based on a variety of criteria 1.
linguistic (mutual intelligibility), 2.
political, 3. social, 4. cultural.
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Regional transitions are fluid